AHC: WW2 where Communism is the main enemy

Your challenge here is to create a World War 2 where communism is completely opposed to the Allies and serves the role as the "villain"/main threat; make communism as evil as possible. Fascism is allowed to exist here, but it NEEDS to be the lesser of two evils. How would such a WW2 start? Would the USSR be the equivalent of Germany? Could there be a Commie Axis, and if so then what would it be comprised of? Would any members of the OTL Axis or Allies join the side of this new Axis (e.g. Commie Germany?)? Would the US even get involved (and who else in the OTL war won't and will get involved?)?

EDIT: Try to avoid things like "Commie UK" or "Commie US".
 
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I've got one of those.

Thoroughly prosecuted WWI, America enters the war earlier thanks to no pause in unrestricted submarine warfare, Allied forces assault across the Rhine in spring 1918, peace treaty at gunpoint.

Russia still collapses into revolution, did so before the allies could bring Germany down, flavour debatable, different influences maybe. About a decade of calm after storm, world pulling itself back together, stunned peace before enough post war bubbles burst,

street fighting communists and national socialists in Germany, the Nazis don't have revanchism on their side powerfully enough to prevail, there may be toings and froings- monarchist coup, social democrat coups, army coups- add chaos to taste.

Near revolutions, not that unlikely, in France, Italy, Spain drag in the rest of Europe, to defend socialism or to stamp it out, or if French half the army attempting one and half the other. Sides left versus right, main battlegrounds Poland and Germany.

Not going to spoil the ending.
 
in all honesty here lies a rather big one

have Leon Trotsky be the leader of the soviet union. This is the big one for a few reasons

reason 1 fascism and importantly Hitler comes to power. he still hates communists and Jews and guess what Trotsky is both

reason 2 Trotsky still believes in the world revolution and sees Hitler as the biggest opponent and depending on how things go he probably attacks first

reason 3 world revolution believing Trotsky probably funds communist revolutionaries all over the world and this does not endear him to anyone and with his attack on Germany the rest of the world supports Germany making communism the enemy of ww2 at least
 
WW1 ends in a stalemate and WW2 is fought between an Anglo/German alliance and a Franco/Soviet one?
Granted, i stole the idea from Rvbomally but i still like it
 
in all honesty here lies a rather big one

have Leon Trotsky be the leader of the soviet union. This is the big one for a few reasons

reason 1 fascism and importantly Hitler comes to power. he still hates communists and Jews and guess what Trotsky is both

reason 2 Trotsky still believes in the world revolution and sees Hitler as the biggest opponent and depending on how things go he probably attacks first

reason 3 world revolution believing Trotsky probably funds communist revolutionaries all over the world and this does not endear him to anyone and with his attack on Germany the rest of the world supports Germany making communism the enemy of ww2 at least

Big problem with this though; Trotsky would also have to adopt a policy that is willing to centralize authority rather than distribute out to the regional and professional Soviets in order to get the kind of control of resources and restructuring of society required in order to both build up the Communist Party to the point it can both fund the kinds of revolutions it desires internationally and to build up its own military-industrial strength to effictively compete with Europe in an offensive Total War scenerio (and they've have to be the agressor, since France and GB aren't going to jumping in crush them). While I agree a Trotskite Forgien Policy would go a long way to making the "Red Menace" appear more threatening, it also requires a stronger domestic policy in order to make that threat have substance behind it.

The challenge here is to create a World War 2 where the Commies are the antagonists instead of the Fascists (if the latter even exists). How would such a WW2 start? Could there be a Commie Axis, and if so then what would it be comprised of? Would any members of the OTL Axis or Allies join the side of this new Axis? Would the US even get involved (and who else in the OTL war won't and will get involved?)?

Perhaps you have the Socialists come out on top in the "Red Years" in Italy? There was quite a bit of industrial unrest and post-war dislike of the government in responce to the failure to get much out of Versailles, which if the popular perception turned more in the direction of "The Royal Family and Generals sent us into the meatgrinder for their empty dreams of glory. Never again!" as opposed to "We must try harder!" just a little more, or the Conservative factions coulden't agree to get behind the Fascist ideology could result in that state going down a Socialist route. Let's say, for instance, the government insists on taking the nation into ANOTHER war to try to enforce their claims in Anatolia and Yugoslavia? I could see resistance on the part of the civilian population after the horrors of the Alpine Front (likely getting repeated) the retaining of rationing/war taxes, conscription, ect. raising into riots and a "Redshirt" (the irony here...) March on Rome. The Royalist government would have to either accept a Socialist Ministry or risk civil war.

This could fundimentally alter the trajectory of right-wing thought without the example of Italian Facism gaining political power in the 1920's; turning it more towards traditionalism/law and order against Populist mobs whipped up by demegogues as opposed to the rallying of the Nation as a single "class" to resist class-dividing ideology of Communism. Have the more Military Conservative/Bussiness elements in Germany come into power as a results, creating a state very similar to Poland , and that makes "Nazi" Germany seem like more of a bulwark against the Reds and the Communists more of a threat to international order
 
in all honesty here lies a rather big one

have Leon Trotsky be the leader of the soviet union. This is the big one for a few reasons

reason 1 fascism and importantly Hitler comes to power. he still hates communists and Jews and guess what Trotsky is both

reason 2 Trotsky still believes in the world revolution and sees Hitler as the biggest opponent and depending on how things go he probably attacks first

reason 3 world revolution believing Trotsky probably funds communist revolutionaries all over the world and this does not endear him to anyone and with his attack on Germany the rest of the world supports Germany making communism the enemy of ww2 at least

It might work but Trotsky coming to power is actually surprisingly hard.

IMO the best POD might be no miracle on the Vistula resulting in the CCCP integrating basically all of Poland from 1920. Lenin pushes for further advance into Germany but Trotsky persuades him that, yeah, there's no way the Red Army can do that. Instead he persuades Lenin to cede the Danzig corridor back to the Germans and the KPD gains a huge base of support from what IOTL was the "left" of the Nazi party--the Communists have shown that they can nullify the humiliation of Germany after all by playing nice with the CCCP. Ultimately the KPD is able to take power.

It might be possible for Italy to go Communist rather than Fascist during the Bienno Rosso, otherwise, Mussolini might try to tack back to his Socialist roots to ingratiate Italy with the Comintern--though whether that gets anywhere is another matter, and probably depends on who succeeds Lenin (Stalin would allow it, as would possibly the rest of the right Bolsheviks, most of the Left wouldn't).

France, conversely, would see the Commies re-strengthening Germany and would crack down hard on its own Communists.

In Spain, with both Germany and the CCCP as well as possibly Italy supporting the Republic, the coup of 1936 fails and the Leftists crack down hard on the Right. The Spanish Republic moves towards a Comintern affiliation.

From here, you can get a WWII between the Allies and the Comintern, with factions looking something like the following IMO:

Allies:
--France
--Britain + Commonwealth
--America may join in if USW happens, but see below for why I find this unlikely.

Comintern:
--CCCP
--Spanish Republic
--German People's Reich
--Possibly Italy

Neutral:
--Italy
--possibly Japan
--possibly USA

Toss-up:
--Japan
--China

As WWII starts, I imagine that the Soviets will argue that the better way to cripple the UK without involving the USA is going to be an invasion of India and the Middle East, cutting the Suez Canal and the British oil supply. If they can restrain the Germans from launching USW, they likely will not draw the USA in by this expedient.

Things get interesting when you start to look at Asia. Since both Germany and the CCCP IOTL heavily backed the KMT and Chinese Republic, I find it likely that the USA and Britain look to Japan as a counterweight to the Comintern in East Asia. Thus, an embargo is highly unlikely, indeed, both countries will probably funnel resources towards the Empire. Depending on what happens at ATL Khalkin Gol, Japan may declare war on the USSR, but I believe that this is unlikely purely because there aren't that many resources to justify a full on invasion of Siberia.

The other Asia scenario would be butterflies resulting in an earlier resumption of the Chinese Civil War, and the Comintern going all-in for the CCP. From here, the KMT/RoC are pro-Allies, and by domino effect the Japanese pro-Comintern. Here, it is much more likely that Japan attacks Britain and the USA as OTL and from there the USA becomes involved against the Comintern.

In the first scenario, I believe that the Comintern will win 7 times in 10. The combined Red Army and Volkswehr will be able to destroy the French with ease, and from there it is likelier than not that the Communists can push into the Middle East or India and sever British oil supplies. They certainly won't take Britain, but they will dismantle the Empire and set up pro-Comintern regimes in the Middle East and India. However, there is a chance that the highly defensible terrain in Iran will slow down Soviet advances.

In the second, it all comes down to when the USA joins in and how much energy the Soviets use to prop up Japan. The USA IMO will not want to stomach the long and bloody war that it would take to push all the way into Russia, particularly if the Soviets don't Pearl Harbor or similar. Given that the Reds will control most of the Continent, canned sunshine won't be an easy option to hit the Motherland (there's also the fact that most Russian cities are spread out enough that nukes will have minimal impact). Ultimately, in this scenario, I believe that either a stalemate or a signed peace in which the Allies make some gains--possibly carving off Soviet Central Asia as a British Mandate but not much else--is the likeliest outcome, but it could go many ways.
 
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Good posts. I especially like the idea of a communist Germany, and I'm glad that it's been brought up here.

I do find the idea of a pro-Comintern Japan to be quite strange, though, especially with China also being pro-Allies. I'd have imagined it to be the opposite, with China being amongst the major powers of a Commie Axis while Japan is chosen as an Allied Power (more to do with choosing anyone to assist with fighting the communist threats).
 
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